HIGHLIGHTS

Legislative resolutions committee members included (I. to r.) Local 1-80’s Tom Harkins, Local
1-71’s Bob Freer and Garfield Lamb of Williams Lake Local 1-425.

Delegates vote to increase organizing war chest

¢ Jim Parker

One of the big decisions delegates made at
the convention was to build the union’s organiz-
ing fund. After considerable debate, constitu-

‘tional resolutions to pump more of the per
capita paid by local unions into a national orga-
nizing fund passed a majority vote.

Now 25% of the per capita tax collected each
month by the national union will go to fund the
National Organizing and Growth Program
while the union’s national strike fund. which
currently has over $17 million in it, will get 5%,
down from 30%.

“If we’re not growing as a national union,
we're dying. It’s as simple as that,” said Local
1-424 delegate Gerry Smith. “You're either get-
ting bigger, growing and becoming more power-

Organizing Report
Continued from page twenty-two

In Eastern Canada, organizing has become
much more difficult with the Harris govern-
ment in power.

“Employers, with their big law firms, chal-
lenge every application, using legal and even
illegal maneuvers,” the report stated. “With a
Labour Relations Board being sympathetic to
the employers, it has become increasingly diffi-
cult, costly and unproductive to pursue unfair
labour practices during organizing campaigns.”

‘Despite the obstacle, there is still great orga-
nizing potential in Ontario as there is in Que-
bec ae New Brunswick, which we intend to
pursue in the coming months,” said Menard.

_ Menard also talked about the cross-country
consultation tour on organizing that was con-
ducted in March of this year and a subsequent

which came down in May.
‘he report said that a new organizing pro-
am is necessary for the I.W.A. to grow. That
rogram was developed and presented to the
‘union’s National Executive Board at its Sep-
ber meeting. The program was debated at
convention (see story above) to mark a new
for the union’s national organizing pro-

Bill Routley

ful, or you’re falling into atrophy...”

National Secretary Treasurer Terry Smith
said that the strike fund will continue to grow
on its own.

“The biggest problem we’ve got in lots of
places in this country is the non-union competi-
tion down the street,” said Smith.

Wilf McIntyre, President of Local 2693, said
that local unions need a strong organizing fund
to help out in the legal battles that take place
during new membership drives.

He said that it is essential for unions to stick
with newly organized employees when they are
brought in.

Gary Kobayashi, President of Vancouver
Local 217, said that when he went on tour with

e Bob DeLeeuw

° Kapuskasing Local 1-2995 delegates were one of the five Ontario locals co-hosting the convention.

e Damien Roy

the National Organizing Committee, he got the
clear message that the union should have
enough resources to organize and that local
didn’t feel they had the ability to raise addi-
tional dues for organizing.

“So it left us with one alternative but to find
a source of revenue that we could use for orga-
nizing and that it obviously has to come from
the strike fund,” said Brother Kobayashi.

He defended the shifting of the strike fund
per capita to the organizing fund and said that
“if you look at the history of our organization,
there hasn’t been a strike that has been won or
has been lost because of the strike fund. Recent
history of the 1986 strike in B.C. shows we

Continued on page twenty-four

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LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER 1997/23